Latvia University of Agriculture - Latvijas Lauksaimniecības ...

L. Līpiņš et al. Scientific Activities of Forest FacultyThe structure of round timber in the final felling in state and private forests doesnot differ substantially. The round timber structure differs in state and private forests inintermediate fellings. In state forests the yield of small-sized logs is 9 ÷ 18 % higher,while in private forests the yield of deciduous firewood is twice as high as in stateforests.The balance for round timber has been made, taking into consideration the import andexport volumes. The total volume of residues after felling and that which is of potentialuse has been estimated. The balance of wood resources used for generating heat energyhas been made (4.66 mil. m 3 2003), where residues from wood processing make upthe greatest proportion – 1.57 mil.m 3 , firewood - 1.3 mil.m 3 and felling residues –0.89 mil.m 3 .The output, residue structure, amount and utilization trends of the products obtainedfrom woodcutting, veneer and plywood manufacturing, matches and charcoal productionas well as fibreboard manufacturing have been estimated.It has been calculated that the income from 1 m 3 of processed veneer logs for plywoodproduction is 115 LVL (164 EUR), that is twice as much as in wood sawing, but 7 timesless than in producing veneer for furniture finishing.Forest inventory and forest management planningIn 2004 under the leadership of the Dean of the Forest faculty asoc. professorD. Dubrovskis, a research group ” Precise Forestry Research Group” was established atthe Latvia University of Agriculture in cooperation with the staff of Forest and InformationTechnology faculties. The necessity of establishing such a group was motivated by therapid development of information technology worldwide over the last decade. It providesthe development of new solutions to forest and wood resources inventory, planning,analysis, and control. The aim of the project group is to carry out research on forestinventory and planning processes, demonstrate innovative solutions and increase thecompetencies of the employees and students of the forest sector. The research grouphas the following aims:– forest inventory which includes the development of measuringinstruments and the development of forest inventory and wood resourcesmeasurement methods;– planning of forest management, which includes the development of new methodsand new generation software;– forest logistics, which includes the research into the processes of timber preparationand transportation, simulation and creating an information technology supportsystem.The research group has carried out the projects ordered by the SC Latvia’s StateForests, Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Education and Science and MetrumLtd., as a result of which several prototypes of computer software and programmeshave been created:– „Ozolin’s algorithm beta version” (virtual measurement) – a programme prototypedeveloped for the evaluation of the felling site fund to forecast SC „Latvia’s StateForests” round timber supply;– „Mežvērte”- the software developed for evaluating the fund of the felling site, whichincludes the analysis of the virtual measurement analysis of trees, forecasting theround timber output and the calculation of the felling site value. The programme canbe used for private forest evaluation and in evaluating the amount of compensationfor the protected territories;– „Meža eksperts” – forest inventory, a forest ownership evaluation and forestmanagement planning software programme, which was developed for planningforest property management, assessing the value of the forest property and forregistration and control of economic activities. The programme is used for providingprivate forest management for both individual forest properties and combined forestproperties. Currently, the users of the programme are private forest owners,associations of forest owners, assessors of real estate and providers of forestconsulting services;– „MAPIS”- the use of the forest management planning information system Webfor education of private forest owners, forest evaluation and forest managementplanning. The forest owners can get free access to the programme through theInternet. Through this programme forest owners can become acquainted with theLatvia University of Agriculture – 70, 2009 29